ISAR Business Plan 2008/11 - West Midlands Fire Service

12 ISAR BUSINESS PLAN
PRESS STATEMENT
LATEST UPDATES FROM WEST MIDLANDS RESCUERS IN KASHMIR
Alan Pellowe, Pete Mills, Phil Webb, Stuart Downes and Paul Jobbins were mobilised within
hours of the earthquake happening and travelled to Islamabad, from where they were
helicoptered into the very heart of the trauma – Muzaffarabad – the epicentre of the earthquake.
The team were part of the UK contingent of eighty personnel who assisted in the rescue of
24 people trapped under rubble, as well as co-ordinating all the international rescue teams out
in Muzaffarabad, for the UN.
Pete Mills and Stuart Downes were responsible for the initiative which helped to save 800
casualties from nearby towns after co-ordinating the German Airforce to send helicopters into
areas that hadn’t received any help for five days since the earthquake struck. These were people
who would have died from their injuries.
Speaking live from Muzaffarabad, Alan Pellowe told Firepower that the team had been
working 21-hour days with little more than three hours sleep every night and had been subject
to after-shocks most nights.
He said: “It has taken a huge toll on all of us physically and emotionally but we are all working
well together and supporting each other. The sights the members have been exposed to are
horrific. We are all experienced firefighters and have seen a lot in our lives already but nothing
on this scale.”
The team finally returned home to Birmingham International Airport where they were greeted by
their families, fellow colleagues of the team, as well as councillors and representatives from the
Birmingham communities who had lost relatives in the earthquake zone and the media.